Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash review – this affordable miniature flash unit could just live in your camera bag

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Amateur Photographer verdict

The Viltrox Vintage Z2 isn’t especially powerful and it doesn’t bounce. But this tiny folding flash unit is super-cheap and takes up next to no space in in your camera bag.

Pros

Ultra-compact size
Folding design saves space and lifts flash well above lens
Switching from TTL to manual retains metered power setting

Cons

Not very powerful
No bounce flash option (unsurprisingly)

With very few cameras having a built-in flash these days, a market has opened up for simple on-camera units that can deliver a blip of additional light when you need it. The Viltrox Vintage Z2 is one of the smallest and most affordable I’ve yet seen, costing just $35.99 / £31.99 and weighing in at a mere 52g. Yet it supports both TTL-auto metering and manual output control. It’s available in Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony variants – I tested the latter.

Viltrox Vintage Z2 at a glance:

$35.99 / £31.99
Mini on-camera flash unit
Guide no 6 at ISO 100
28mm equivalent coverage
TTL and manual control
64.6 x 38.5 x 33.4mm, 52g
Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon and Sony
viltrox.com

Unlike the firm’s larger Vintage Z1 unit, there’s no obvious ‘vintage’ styling here. Instead, the compact, folding design appears to have been inspired by the diminutive Fujifilm EF-X8, a tiny hot-shoe unit that first appeared with the X-T1 camera in 2014. The Viltrox Z2 is a bit larger, to accommodate its built-in battery, but it’ll still slip easily into a bag or pocket.

With a relatively low guide number of 6m at ISO 100, though, this is anything but a power demon. It does the same kind of job as a small built-in flash would, providing direct illumination in low-light conditions. However, it’s not going to provide much in the way of fill-in outdoors on a bright sunny day. Its colour temperature is rated as 6500K, which is a better match to daylight than artificial light, colour-wise.

Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash on the Sony A7R V. Image credit: Andy Westlake

Viltrox Vintage Z2 key features

Built-in power: An internal USB-C rechargeable battery should be good for 700 full-power flashes
Simple operation: Three buttons are used to turn the flash on and off, and set the mode and output power
Quick release: The unit can be removed from the camera simply by pressing a button on the shoe
Folding design: The flash folds down to save space for carrying, then flips up for use

Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash with diffuser and shoe cover — The Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash in its Sony version, with its diffuser and shoe cover. Image credit: Andy Westlake

Operation is pretty straightforward. Holding down the power button on the side for a second turns the unit on, at which point, tapping the same button again fires a test flash. The ‘plus’ and ‘minus’ buttons on the back adjust the power level down to 1/16 in manual mode, although only in whole-stop steps. Holding down the minus button toggles between TTL-auto and manual operation.

Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash controls — Two buttons control the output in manual mode, with the level indicated by small LEDs. Image credit: Andy Westlake

I tested the Viltrox Vintage V2 on both the high-end full-frame Sony A7R V and the much older, APS-C A6000, and found it works pretty much as expected. Most users will, I suspect, leave it set to TTL, so the camera determines the light output, and here it delivers reliable results. In a particularly neat touch, if you take a photo in Auto and then switch to Manual, the unit will automatically retain the metered power setting, so it should still give the correct exposure.

Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash on the Sony A6000, folded — The flash folds down to save space when it’s not in use. Image credit: Andy Westlake

Notably, the folding design lifts the flash high enough above the lens to avoid any shadowing. One quirk to look out for, though, is that it will still fire even when it’s folded down, which will inevitably result in missed shots.

Viltrox provides a small push-on translucent plastic diffuser in the box. If you’re lucky, this might soften the light a little when shooting indoors. But I’ve found that most of the time, it’s unlikely to do much except reduce the power output.

Viltrox Vintage Z2 flash with diffuser on the Sony A6000 — The push-on translucent diffuser can slightly soften the light when shooting indoors. Image credit: Andy Westlake

Viltrox Vintage Z2: Our Verdict

If you want an ultra-portable and easy-to-use on-camera flash, the Viltrox Vintage Z2 fits the bill. Sure, it’s not very powerful, and you don’t get anything fancy like bounce flash or wireless control. But it’s one of the smallest and cheapest TTL units around, and could well be worth keeping in your bag all the time for when you need the little bit extra light.